You can open the dialog by selecting "New Connection..." from the File menu, or by using the command-E keyboard shortcut.

The connection dialog consists of 4 text fields, the hostname, username, password and the path.

For the Host field, enter a host name or a dotted IP address. For example, you can enter "ftp.info.au" or "129.78.64.1" (you don't enter the quotes of course).

SHORTCUT: to specify a site whose name is "ftp.<some site>.com" site, you can enter just <some site> in the host field, for example, entering "apple" is the same as "ftp.apple.com". Similarly, you can enter "ftp.<some site>..<some country code>", for example, entering "apple..au" is the same as "ftp.apple.com.au".

NOTE: to specify a port number other than the default port of 21, add ":<port number>" after the hostname. For example, "ftp.coolsite.org:23" to specify port 23 as the FTP port on "ftp.coolsite.org".

For most anonymous FTP sites, you can leave the username and password fields blank, and the program will automatically substitute "anonymous" for the username and your e-mail address for the password. Your e-mail address is obtained from Internet Config.

If there is a specific directory you wish to view, you can enter it into the path field. Similarly, if there is a specific file you wish to download, enter its full path into the path field.

For example, you can enter the following as the path to view the "rec" directory on an info-mac mirror site:

/mac/info-mac/rec/

note the ending '/' - this tells NetFinder that you wish to do a directory listing. If it can't list this directory, it will list whatever directory you get logged into.

If you wish to download the file "NetFinder.hqx", you can enter the following:

/mac/info-mac/rec/NetFinder.hqx

When you have entered all of your login details, click Connect to connect to the site.

TIP: To force the collection of a fresh directory listing from the FTP server and not use any cached listing, press and hold down the control key until the listing has started to be collected.

SHORTCUT: The dialog also has two square buttons with key(s) in the icon. These buttons are used to enable/disable Apple's KeyChain Manager (left button) and to add the current URL, specifically the username and password to the current keychain when you successfully login to the server (right button).
What is the KeyChain manager? It is a secure way to store your passwords. Also once you have saved your username/password pair into the keychain, when you next type in your username for a specific site, NetFinder will automatically retrieve your password from the keychain and insert it into the password field. This saves you from typing in your password.

SHORTCUT: Another shortcut which you may have already noticed is that NetFinder can auto-complete your hostname if you have previously visited the site. ie if you previously connected to "ftp.apple.com" you can just type in "ftp.ap" and NetFinder will find the closest match for what you have typed and substitute it into the Hostname field.

TIP: If you connect to one site frequently, you can save yourself the trouble of entering its details again and again by making it the default site for the dialog (Note, each protocol has its own default). To do this, enter the site's details and then keep the OPTION key down while you press the "Connect" button. That's all there is to it. When the dialog is next opened, your new default is automatically loaded in for you. Be aware that if you allow passwords to be exported, then any passwords you enter are NOT encrypted when the URL is saved, so you may prefer to leave the password field blank for the default URL, in which case NetFinder will ask you for a password when you try to open that URL.

You can load a bookmark into the dialog by selecting Open from the File menu.

If you wish, you can save a bookmark to the FTP site so you don't have to re-enter all your details. First, enter all of the details you wish to save in the bookmark. Then select Save from the File menu. A dialog will appear. Navigate to where you want to save the bookmark and give it a name. If you wish, you can save the bookmark as a normal bookmark or as a stationary pad bookmark by clicking on either of the two radio buttons. Click Save. The bookmark is saved.

Another way to make a bookmark is by clicking in the URL text field and dragging the selected text to your Mac desktop or into a folder or into any Drag and Drop capable text window (such as a SimpleText window). When dragged to the desktop or a folder, a NetFinder bookmark file will be made. When dragged to a text window, the URL text is inserted at the drag insertion point. Alternatively, you can drag the URL into a bookmark list window.

Similarly, any URL can be drag-and-dropped from a text window (such as a text editor or an e-mail program) into the connect dialog and it will be inserted into the appropriate fields. You can also drag and drop NetFinder bookmarks or any URL saved in a text file into this window - the only condition is that the URL must begin with "ftp://" or "http://".

WARNING: any bookmarks that you create or URLs that you drag out will include your password and it will be in cleartext - that is, not scrambled or hidden. This is not something you want to do if the Mac is used by many people or there are others watching your Mac's screen!

Double click a bookmark.

Open a FTP URL in any internet-aware program. For example, you can click on a link in a web browser configured to use NetFinder (like Netscape Navigator), click on a link in a text editor (like BBEdit), e-mail program (like Eudora), or USENET program (like Newswatcher) that is configured to open URLs.

Double click a NetFinder partial file icon. NetFinder will make a connection and continue downloading the file automatically.

Like the Finder, this displays the name of the currently displayed folder. Command-click the text of the folder name to display a menu containing the names of the folders above and including the current one. If you then select the currently displayed folder from the menu, the current folder's contents are refreshed with a fresh listing from the FTP server (any cached listing is discarded). You can also select a higher folder from the menu and it will be opened in a separate window (or its window will be selected if it's already open). To force a re-list of a higher folder, hold down the control key when you command-click the menu.

This is the icon in the top left corner of the window. It represents the current status of the window. When the window is not doing anything, you will see a folder with a cable coming out of it (as shown in the picture). When a directory listing is currently in progress, you will see this icon change into an animated pair of chasing arrows.

TIP: this icon can be dragged to the desktop or a folder or into a drag-and-drop capable text window to create a bookmark to the currently displayed listing window. You can later open the bookmark to quickly and easily connect again to the same internet site.

NOTE: Under MacOS 8.5 or higher folder icon will not be seen as it will be located to the left of the "Current Directory Name" (A). ie It mimics the Finder.

This is the icon in the top right corner of the window. This icon represents whether the server you are currently connected to (as shown by the name under the title of the window) supports partial files. If partial files are supported, you will see an icon with a green tick on top of a partial file icon. If partial files are not supported, you will see an icon with a red cross instead. See Section 5.3 Downloading Files below for more information on partial files.

The name under the window title that starts with "ftp://" or "http://" (or any other protocol) is the name of the server that the listing window is connected to. This is helpful when you are connected to several sites and need to know which site the listing window belongs to.

Section 5.5.2 Moving Files and Directories explains about moving files on the same server. By looking at the remote hostname area, you can identify whether you are moving a file to somewhere else on the same server.

View expanders are the vertical bars between the listing column names. For example the "Name" and "Size" labels. They allow you to expand the view of the displayed text when it is too long to see in the current viewing space (hint: you start getting text that end with "..."). To see more of the text, expand the view by dragging the View Expanders to the right.

Sometimes you do not want the display the "Size" column after the "Name" column. Instead you want to to display "Kind" after the "Name" column. To do this you simply press and hold down the command key, while clicking then dragging the name of the column you wish to reorder to a new position (as seen in the picture). Once you are done release the mouse and the column is reordered.

To Show or Hide columns that you do or don't want, simply press the control key down while clicking anywhere in the column title (ie Name, Size, Kind etc buttons). This will popup a menu with the available choices to choose from. Simply select and deselect the appropriate items to show and hide them (as seen in the picture above).

Use this display to determine if the listing you are looking at, is an old and possible cached list of files. This is useful when you have Directory Caching enabled and you get errors like "File Not Found", indicating that you are looking at an outdated list of files. When this occurs refresh the listing using the Refresh menu item in the File menu.

To scroll the display freely (in any direction) without using the scroll bars. Press the command key down in the display (but not over any text) and the cursor will change into a "Hand" cursor. Now just press the mouse button down and drag the display in any direction you wish, to view the parts you want to look at.

If you press the control key down instead, you will be shown a contextual menu that will enable you to alter things or perform operations to the current display window.

Click on this triangle to reveal a section that allows you to enter text to specify a filter on the items in the listing.

Example: ".gif" to show all files that contain ".gif" or say "Quake" in a directory of games.

NOTE: You are allowed to specify wild cards. Example: "Quake*.sit" will find all version of Quake that are compressed.

For Power Users, you may wish to specify that the entered text is a Regular Expression.

Some basic RegExp rules are:

. for any character.

* for zero or more of the last character.

+ for one or more of the last character.

? for zero or one of the last character.

[] to specify a range of characters.

^ to specify the start of the string. NOTE: when this is used inside [] it means everything but the specified range.

$ to specify the end of the string.

| to specify "OR".

Some examples (everything inside the quotes):

"[a-c]+\.gif" => any gif file that starts with a to c. Note the period is escaped with a \ because its a special character.

"\.html|\.htm" => find all files that contain ".html" or ".htm"

"^resource" => any file that starts with "resource".

"jpg$" => anything that ends with "jpg"

"image[0-9][0-9][0-9]\.gif" => any image in the range "image000.gif" to "image999.gif"

NOTE: There are various other special characters, so read up on RegExp before using it, otherwise it will not do what you expect.NOTE: All filtering including RegExp are case insensitive.NOTE: All filtering including RegExp. To invert a filter (find all items except ones that match the filter) simply place a '!' character (without quotes) at the start of the filter. The only limitation this causes is that you can no longer search for files that start with '!'.

This indicator indicates whether the connection to the server is secure or not. If it is, all messaging that is sent and received is encrypted.
When transferring a file, this pad lock is also seen in the progress dialog. When the pad lock is closed the connection is secure and all data is transferred encrypted. If the pad lock is open then the data is not encrypted.
If your server does not support secure data transactions, then you can simply transfer files pre-encrypted using a third party product like PGP or Stuffit.

Other information about the listing window's display area

Below the header area is the display area containing the files and folders on the FTP site. Just as in the Finder, you can select items, drag-select across items to select multiple items, shift-click extra items, and deselect items by clicking the blank areas. You can click on the folder triangles to open them and see the contents of a folder. Click again to close them. Double click folder icons to open them in separate windows. Option-double-click them to open a window for that icon and close the current window behind it. Just about anything you can do in the Finder, you can also do in NetFinder's listing windows.

NetFinder remembers the window positions and the "sort by" method of all directories opened in a listing window.

TIP: This is a great feature when combined with a bookmark for, say, a "recently uploaded files" directory on a server. You probably always want to view this directory sorted by date. Well, since NetFinder remembers the sorting method, that directory will always will be displayed sorted by date.

NOTE: Window position information is stored in NetFinders' cache files and will thus be forgotten if you purge the directory cache (see section 6.3 Listings Pane in section 6.0 NetFinder preferences for more information).

Connect to a FTP site and open a listing window. After it has opened, select the item(s) to download and drag them to your desktop or a folder icon or folder window. The selected items will then be downloaded to your Mac's disk (or shared volume if the destination is a shared volume). You can even drag out folder icons and the entire contents of that folder will be downloaded into a folder with the same name at the destination. In other words, NetFinder will preserve the directory structure of the FTP directory and replicate it on your Mac's disk.

TIP: command-drag-and-drop to move the selected files or folders. This will cause NetFinder to first download the files or folders and after each one is successfully downloaded, it is deleted from the FTP site (assuming you have the access rights to delete files and/or folders of course). This is handy if you move data to and from sites often.

Connect to a FTP site and open a listing window. After it has opened, select the item(s) to download and double click them or select "Open..." from the File menu or press command-down-arrow from the keyboard. All these operations will start a download of any of the file items selected. Note that selected folder items will be opened in separate listing windows.

Double click a partially downloaded file's icon. NetFinder will continue downloading the file starting at the point where it was last up to.

Double click a bookmark file whose URL refers to a file on a FTP site (as opposed to a folder).

Click a FTP link in an Internet Config aware program such as Newswatcher (assuming Internet Config is installed and set up to use NetFinder as the FTP program).

Click a FTP link in a web browser which has been configured to use NetFinder as the FTP program.

While downloading files, NetFinder uses a variety of options to work out what to do with the downloaded files. For example, you can configure NetFinder to automatically decode MacBinary and Binhex 4.0 encoded files, to "post-process" files, to keep partial files, to play a sound when it's done, and even to automatically rename files if there already is a file with the same name in the destination folder. See the section 6.5 Downloading Pane in section 6.0 NetFinder preferences for more information.

If you want to use a different decoding method for a particular download, you can:

select the files/folders to download, and then press the option key. While keeping it held down, drag the selected item(s) to a Finder location. The "One-Off Download Option" dialog will appear. Select a decoding method or click Cancel.

select the files/folders to download, and then press the option key. While keeping it held down, double click the selected items. The "One-Off Download Option" dialog will appear. Select a download location and the decoding method to use.

During a download, NetFinder displays this dialog to tell you how far it is in the transfer and how much is left:

It looks and behaves just like a Finder copy window except that it also has an extra section at the bottom to tell you useful information like the transfer mode, whether the server supports partial files (so you know whether you can stop the transfer now and continue later), the current transfer rate and the amount remaining to transfer (both as number of bytes and estimated time to completion). If more than one file or folder remains to be transferred, an extra line at the bottom will appear and it will tell you how much remains to be transferred for all of the remaining items.

You can click the "Stop" button to stop a transfer. If the FTP server supports stopping a transfer, it will be stopped. If the server supports continuing partial files, NetFinder will use its "Partial Files:" setting to determine what to do with the partially downloaded file. See the section 6.5 Downloading Pane in section 6.0 NetFinder preferences for information on this setting.

If the server supports partial files and the partial file is not deleted, then its icon is changed to that of a "partially downloaded file". You can later double click this icon to continue downloading the file from the position it was up to when the transfer was stopped.

TIP: click the "Transfer rate" to toggle the transfer rate between bytes per second, bytes per minute and bytes per hour.

TIP: click the "File remaining" lines to toggle between amount remaining, total amount and amount transferred.

The purpose of the View command is to allow you to easily display a selected file in a number of different forms. Namely as a Text file (show raw data), or a Graphic (picture representation of the file if applicable) or get your Web Browser to try to display the file the best way it can.

The View File command is accessable via the File menu or by using the Contextual Menu on a selected item.

There are 4 options when viewing a file:

View (intelligent), tries to determine which of the following 3 ways to view the file based on the file extension. eg .html uses your Web Browser to view the file, .gif/.jpg/.tiff uses NetFinder to display the picture to screen and .txt uses NetFinder to display a Text representation of the file into a window.

View In Web Browser, forces the selection to be viewed in your default Web Browser. Be sure to set this up in Internet Config (or Internet control panel in MacOS 8.5 or higher), otherwise an error may occur.

View As Text, forces the selection to be viewed in a NetFinder window as a Text file (Raw Data dump).

View As Graphic, forces the selection to be viewed in a NetFinder window as a Graphic/Picture. NOTE: if a broken picture is seen, this indicates that the file can not be viewed as a picture by NetFinder. To view this file you will have to download it and use another third party application.

The View Graphic window (seen below) displays various useful bits of information about the picture like the dimensions and file format. When the picture is larger than the window, you can use the hand cursor to grab the picture and move it in any direction instead of using the scroll bars.

drag its icon from the desktop of a folder window in the Finder (or drag a folder icon) into a listing window in NetFinder, or

first, have the destination directory open as the front most window in NetFinder. Then select "Upload..." from the Net menu. Select the file or folder to upload and click "Upload".

The item will then be uploaded using your settings in the "Uploading Pane" in the "NetFinder Preferences" window. See the section 6.7 Uploading Pane in section 6.0 NetFinder preferences for information on the settings.

During the transfer, a transfer dialog just like the one for downloads will be displayed. It has exactly the same operation and the same usage. See the section above for downloading files for information about how to use the dialog.

If you want to use a different upload method(s) or permissions for a particular upload, there are a few ways to do it:

press the option key. While keeping it held down, drag the desired item(s) from a Finder location to a NetFinder window. The "One-Off Download Option" dialog will appear. Select your options and click OK, or click Cancel to cancel.

a variation on the first method is to first drag the desired item(s) from a Finder location to a NetFinder window. Then, before releasing the mouse/trackball button, press the option key. While keeping it held down, release the mouse button. The "One-Off Download Option" dialog will appear. Select your options and click OK, or click Cancel to cancel.

by using the "Upload..." menu item in the Net menu. First open a connection to the desired destination and have its listing window as the front most window. Then press and hold down the option key. While keeping it held down, select "Upload..." from the Net menu (or press command-U). Select the file or folder you want to upload. The "one-off upload options" dialog will appear. Select your options and click OK.

WARNING: You cannot stop an upload and continue from the stopped position at a later time. In other words, this version of NetFinder does not support partial file uploading.

This section describes manipulating files on a FTP server. If you are logging in anonymously, so you will (usually) not have the access rights to create directories or move, rename or delete files or directories. If this is the case, you don't have to read this section.

There are several ways to delete a file or directory (including its all of the directory's contents). First select the files and directories you wish to delete and then:

Drag them to the Trash icon on your desktop. When you do this, you will be asked to confirm the delete operation. Click "Delete" (or use command-D) to delete the selected items.

TIP: you can bypass this confirmation dialog by option-dragging the items to the Trash icon (that is, press and hold the option key down before dragging the selected items to the Trash icon).

Select "Delete..." from the File menu. Again, press and hold down the option key to bypass the confirmation dialog

Press the "delete" key on your keyboard.

Once you have confirmed the deletion, NetFinder will dim the selected items, preventing you from manipulating them further. It will then delete the selected items one by one.

WARNING: be very careful what you delete! It is very hard (well, more like next to impossible) to recover accidentically deleted files. Unlike your local hard disk where deleted items may be recovered using a disk utility, when an item is deleted on an FTP server, it is almost guaranteed that you will never see it again!

To move a file or a directory to a new location, select the items you wish to move and drag them to where you want them to go. Yes, it is as simple as that!

You can even move items between windows as long as the two windows have the same login details, that is, same hostname (and port number), same username and same password.

WARNING: some FTP server programs do not support moving files. A good way to check is to refresh the directory listing after you move a file (use the "Refresh Listing" menu command in the File menu). For example, tcpConnect4 does not support moving files.

WARNING: many FTP servers do NOT like directory names with one or more spaces in the name. As a result, moving and renaming items with a space in the name may not work. On some servers, its may even result in the file "disappearing" forever!

To rename a file or directory, click on the name of the item, wait for it to become editable (or just press the 'return' key to make it editable straight away) and then type the new name for the item. Press 'return' to rename the file.

NOTE: Many servers do not like files with unusual characters in the name, so you should try to avoid these characters whenever possible. Unusual characters include spaces and most of the option-key combinations like option-F for example. Directories and files with spaces in it their names may especially cause the server to not work properly when retrieving directory listing information.

WARNING: Some servers will allow you to rename an item to the same name as another item in the same directory. Try to avoid doing this, because this will result in the existing item being replaced by the item you just renamed! This is especially dangerous if you do this to directories, because the replaced directories' contents will be lost forever!

To do this, select "New Folder..." from the File menu. A new directory called "Untitled_Directory" is created on the FTP site. And just like in the Finder, you will then be able to rename it to what you want (provided you have renaming enabled in the preferences).

To copy a file on a FTP site to another FTP site (or to a directory on the same FTP site), select the files you wish to copy and option-drag them to where you want them to go (either in the same window or to another window). Yes, it is as simple as that!

To duplicate files on a FTP site, select the files you wish to duplicate and select "Duplicate" from the File menu.

You can also do remote copying of directories.

NOTE: Some servers do NOT allow copying from other servers, or duplicating a file on the same server. The reason for this is not because the server can not handle such an operation, but rather by enabling the feature, the server opens itself up to potential security holes, resulting in hackers causing damage to the server or obtaining files illegally.

WARNING: many FTP servers do NOT like directory names with one or more spaces in the name. As a result, copying items with a space in the name may not work.

Using BBEdit 4.5.1 or later, you can now edit (text) files on FTP sites. For example, this is useful for quick and easy modifications of web sites.

To edit a file, select it in a Listing window, and then select the "Edit in BBEdit" from the Edit menu or use Command-B. NetFinder will then download the file to the Temporary Items folder on your Mac's disk, and then open the file in BBEdit. Edit the file, save your changes and when you are ready to update your FTP site, close the file. NetFinder will then upload the file. After NetFinder successfully uploads the modified file, the local copy on your Mac's disk is deleted. If the upload fails, the local copy if not deleted but is instead moved to your desktop.

The last paragraph describes the simplest use of editing. However, there are several variations that are possible:

editing a remote file and keeping a local copy. To do this, modify the remote file but save the changes to a file with the same name but in a folder other than the Temporary Items folder. NetFinder will then upload the file when you close it but it will not delete the local copy.

editing a remote file for the purposes of creating a similar file (but with a different name) on the remote site. To do this, modify the remote file but save the changes to a file with a different name (the name to be used on the remote site). NetFinder will then upload the file using the new name when you close it. If you also save the new file in a folder other than the Temporary Items folder, it will not be deleted after it is uploaded.

WARNING: currently, NetFinder will always upload a saved modified file. If you want to abort the uploading, you must be certain to NOT save any changes to the local copy, that is, just close the file without saving any changes. For obvious reasons, NetFinder will not upload files that are not modified.

To create a bookmark to a listing window, press Command-S or select "Save" or "Save As" from the File menu while that window is the front most window. You will be asked for a name to save the bookmark under. Enter a name and click the Save button.

Alternatively, you can drag Window Status icon in the top left corner to the desktop or a folder icon or folder window. You can also drag the icon into a text window to insert the URL to that listing window into the text window.

To bookmark items in a listing window, select the an items, then press and hold down the control key, and then drag the selected items to the desktop or a folder icon or a folder window while keeping the control key held down. Release the mouse button when you are at the destination and then release the control key.

NOTE: if you forget to press the control key, you will end up starting a file transfer instead of creating a bookmark.

TIP: if you use an e-mail program or a text editing program that can accept text being dragged and dropped into it (such as SimpleText), you can quickly create a list of URL's by simply selecting the desired files or folders and dragging them to the text window. This is very handy for compiling a list of URLs for an e-mail letter or a web page.

The saved bookmark files are actually text files that contain a URL. For example, <ftp://archie.au/mac/info-mac/rec/>. As such, you can edit them in your favourite text editor like SimpleText.

WARNING: If you did not log into a site anonymously, that is, you used a username and password, you should create bookmarks to that site with caution, because the bookmark's URL will contain your username and password in plain text (that is, not encrypted!). For secure password storage use Apple's KeyChain Manager.

TIP: If you use NetFinder with your own FTP account often enough, you can create a bookmark on the desktop and give it a custom icon of, say, a hard disk. This will either (a) confuse you, or (b) make FTP access more transparent. I guess it depends how confused you already are about your desktop - I know I am with mine ;-)

NOTE: Bookmarks can be made for files and folders from the listing window. Each however perform two entirely different functions when you open them. A bookmark of a directory/folder will cause NetFinder to display that directory's contents in a listing window. A bookmark of a file will cause NetFinder to start downloading that file.

NetFinder can save URLs as normal bookmarks or stationary pad bookmarks. The difference is this: when you double click a normal bookmark, the URL saved in it is automatically opened (that is, NetFinder connects to the site, logs you in, and lists or downloads whatever the URL points to); when you double click a stationary pad bookmark, NetFinder reads in the URL and displays it in a fresh "New Connection" dialog and places the insertion point at the end of the path field, ready for you to add to the path. In a sense, the URL in the stationary pad bookmark acts like a template which you modify when you open it.

TIP: you can change a normal bookmark into a stationary pad bookmark and vice versa by selecting the bookmark in the Finder, selecting the Get Info command (in the Finder's File Menu), and clicking the "Stationary pad" checkbox on or off.

The transcript window records all messages sent to and from all the FTP servers that NetFinder "talks" to. It is generally not useful for most people. It is often only used when things don't go as expected and you need to work out why, or perhaps to see messages that the server wishes to inform the user of, such as "Too many users currently logged in, try again later."

To show or hide the Transcript window, use the "Show Transcript" and "Hide
Transcript" menu commands in the Windows menu. You can also click its close box
to hide it.

NOTE: The transcript window only stores a limited amount of information (about 25K). So if the transcript gets is long, the start of the transcript is deleted from the window. The transcript file, however, always contains the entire transcript since when it was activated.

select the "Go To Directory..." command from the Net menu. Enter a directory to open into the dialog that appears. You can enter ".." to go up a level. For example, if you are at "/home/user/vtan/public/", you can use ".ftp" to go to "/home/user/vtan/ftp".

NetFinder lets you create and maintain lists of bookmarks. You can organise your FTP sites into convenient lists in the order you want and with folders to keep different types of sites grouped together.

Select "New Bookmark List" from the Lists menu or "Open..." from the File menu. You can open NetFinder lists, Anarchie lists and Fetch lists.

When the list appears, you can:

double click an entry to open that URL (ie connect to the server)

select Clear from the Edit menu or press the delete key to delete an entry or separator

use the "Get Info" menu command from the File menu to edit the name, URL and comments. In the Get Info dialog, you can drag out the URL and drag in URLs from text windows, NetFinder single bookmark files, and Anarchie bookmarks.

drag and drop entries between lists to copy them or within a list to move it. To copy an entry within a list, option-drag it.

To create a new bookmark use "New Bookmark..." from the Lists menu or drag an item (file/folder) from a listing window.
To create a folder use "New Folder" from the File menu.
Files and folders may be moved around just like you would expect in any other listing window.

NOTE: in lists, passwords are encoded (using a very simple encoding and should not be used if you must keep your password(s) absolutely secret). For secure password storage use Apple's KeyChain Manager.

List the listing window, you are also able to configure the columns seen in this window. Namely you can hide/show the columns you wish, reorder their positions and resize the column widths.

Drag a URL link from a web page in Internet Explorer, Netscape and possibly other browsers into the bookmark window. Try the link above.

It could not be simpler. Expect more enhancements in the future.

Why should I use the download queue?

So you can select a bunch of files to download from various folders then download them in one go, instead of browsing then downloading then browsing more slowly because bandwidth is used to transfer the file.

The list of files to download can be saved, so you don't have to find the files again after you quit NetFinder.

Its an easy drag-n-drop mechanism to get files listed on a web page from a web browser.

I am sure there are many other reasons, many of which I would never have thought of.

Step 3: enter the URL of the directory where the contents will go into the URL field

Tip: you can drag a folder icon from NetFinder listing windows to the URL field to save yourself some typing

Note: you must enter the URL for a folder

Step 4: enter a local folder to upload from into the Local File System Object field

Tip: you can drag and drop a folder from a <file://> protocol window (in NetFinder)
or a folder icon from the Finder (either from inside a Finder window or from the
title bar of a Finder window)

Tip: you can click the Local File System Object field to use a browse dialog

Step 5: select how NetFinder decides which files/folders to mirror

mirroring by Name only causes NetFinder to upload items that exist locally
but don't exist remotely. If you change a local file after you mirror a site,
it *will not* be uploaded on subsequent mirror operations.

mirroring by Name And Size causes NetFinder to upload items that either
(1) exist locally but don't exist remotely, or (2) exist in both locations
but have different sizes. Tip: this is the more useful option since it causes NF
to upload when you change a file locally.

mirroring by Name And Size And Mod Date causes NetFinder to upload items that either
(1) exist locally but don't exist remotely, or (2) exist in both locations
but have different sizes or modified date. Tip: this is the more useful option since it causes NF
to upload when you change a file locally.

if the Object On Server But None Locally option is set to Delete Object,
then NetFinder will delete all objects that don't have a corresponding file/folder
in the local file system.

if the Object On Server But None Locally option is set to Do Nothing,
then NetFinder will not delete all objects that don't have a corresponding file/folder
in the local file system.

For example, if the URL is <ftp://mysite.com/mycompany/images/> and the
Local File System Object is "MacHD:mycompany:images:" then if the file
<ftp://mysite.com/mycompany/images/image1.gif> exists and the file
"MacHD:mycompany:images:image1.gif" doesn't exist, then with this option set to
Delete Object, NetFinder will delete <ftp://mysite.com/mycompany/images/image1.gif>
when it performs the mirroring operation.

Step 7: set the Do Not Upload Objects Labelled option.

if you want local file items to be ignored when NetFinder scans the folders, set
them to a particular label and then select that same label in this option. Items
labelled with the specified label will then be ignored.

Tip: if there is a remote object whose local object is labelled with the
specified Do Not Upload... label and the Object On Server... option is set to
Delete Object then NetFinder *will not* delete the remote object.

use the Mirror Placeholder file (it's in NetFinder's Goodies folder) to prevent
NetFinder from uploading files/folders or deleting remote files/folders.

how to use it: copy the Mirror Placeholder file to the location in your local
file system where the protected file/folder is in. For example, if you want
<ftp://mysite.com/mycompany/images/image1.gif> to never be altered after you upload
the correct version, then copy Mirror Placeholder file to "MacHD:mycompany:images:"
and rename the Mirror Placeholder file to image1.gif. NetFinder will then leave
the remote copy alone.

note that if there is a remote file that you don't want deleted, then putting a
Mirror Placeholder file in the local file system corresponding to that remote
file effectively prevents NetFinder from deleting the remote file. For example, if
you want <ftp://mysite.com/mycompany/images/image1.gif> to never be deleted, then
copy Mirror Placeholder file to "MacHD:mycompany:images:" and rename the
Mirror Placeholder file to image1.gif. NetFinder will then leave the remote
copy alone.

Notes:

uploads are always binary and therefore resource forks are never uploaded. If
you need to upload resource forks, you'll have to encode the files in MacBinary
or Binhex format manually

NetFinder will only mirror folders. You cannot specify files in Mirror Items.

Tips:

you can duplicate Mirror Items to save yourself entering similar information.
Just select the item and use the Duplicate command to duplicate that item. Then
use the Get Info command to modify the duplicated item. For example, NetFinder
is mirrored on several so we use several Mirror Items to keep the sites up to
date - one item for each site (that is, local entries are the same, but remote
URLs differ).

When and how to use the upload mirror feature of NetFinder.

Scenario #1: simple more-or-less static site

Purpose: a simple site which is generated from text files and images are
already in a web-ready format such as .gif or .jpg (for example, you use
SimpleText and an image scanner or digital camera to capture images).

The recommended options for simple static sites are:

the Mirror By option is set to Name And Size

the Object On Server But None Locally option is set to Do Nothing

the Do Not Upload Objects Labelled option is set to None

Scenario #2: moderately complex site built using professional tools

Purpose: a moderately complex site
generated using HTML and professional image tools such as Photoshop.

The recommended options for moderately complex sites are:

the Mirror By option is set to Name And Size

the Object On Server But None Locally option is set to Do Nothing

the Do Not Upload Objects Labelled option is set to None

use Mirror Placeholder files and/or files with Do Not Upload Objects Labelled
labels to prevent NetFinder from uploading files that are not supposed to be uploaded.
For example, if you generate .gif's from Photoshop files, label the Photoshop files
with a special label and select the same in the Do Not Upload Objects Labelled
option. Then only the .gif's will be uploaded. Similarly for Word documents, etc.

Scenario #3: very dynamic site built using professional tools

Purpose: a complex site which changes its contents
frequently and must always match the files that exist locally.

The recommended options for complex sites are:

the Mirror By option is set to Name And Size

the Object On Server But None Locally option is set to Delete Object

liberal use of Mirror Placeholder files and/or files with Do Not Upload Objects Labelled
labels to prevent NetFinder from uploading files that are not supposed to be uploaded.
See previous scenario for an example.

This window displays the list of partially downloaded files that NetFinder is currently keeping track of. It consists of an active and an inavtive queue of jobs. Each entry shows the URL of the file, where NetFinder thinks the file is and how much of the file has been downloaded.

NOTE: The columns in this window can be configured just like those in the listing window. Namely you can hide/show the columns you wish, reorder their positions and resize the column widths.

In this window, you can:

double click an entry to continue downloading it. If the file cannot be found where NetFinder last wrote to it, you will be asked to locate the file (this allows you to move partial files)

select Clear from the Edit menu (or press delete) to delete an entry; you will asked if you really want to delete it.

Items that are dimmed indicate that:

the job is currently being downloaded (ie items in active queue).

the file associated with this job can no longer be found on your local disk (ie the inactive queue). This may occur when you delete the file in the Finder or when you copy the file to another partition on your hard disk.

Finder Progress Icons
Finder Progress icons are a set of Partial File icons that provide additional information
to the user regarding the current status of a file download. It does so by adding a small progress
bar to the left of the Partial File icon. This information should only be used as a guide,
as it is by no means accurate.

Finder Progress icons become useful when you start downloading files either simultaneously or
via the download queue while the NetFinder application is hidden in the background. It could
also be used as a progress indicator on another machine when you are downloading to a network
device from your downloading machine.

(1) If you don't install Internet Config, you can specify the default text and binary creators by using ResEdit to add TYPE 30000 and 30001 resources in the "NetFinder Preferences" file. Add a TYPE 30000 resource to specify the default text creator (4 bytes) and add a TYPE 30001 resource to specify the default binary creator (4 bytes).

(2) To customise the sounds/speech that NetFinder plays, open the "NetFinder Sound/Speech Data" file with a text editor such a BBEdit or SimpleText and read the instructions inside. You will also need ResEdit to add/remove sampled sounds from the file.

(3) The "NetFinder Preferences" file and the "NetFinder Preferences" folder can both be aliases, and the "NetFinder Startup Items" folder and the items within it can also be aliases. This is handy if you want the same setup on multiple startup disks or for multiple NetFinder applications.

(4) Forcing TYPE A for ASCII transfers
NetFinder has always tried to makes the users life easier by doing all the hard work for you.
An example of this, is the automatic translation of text from the format your machine likes to
that of the remote machine and vice versa. Fortunately this works for "99%" of all servers in the world.
However, there are a small percentage of servers out there (specifically certain VMS systems
and possibly others) that cause NetFinder to transfer text files and have them appear on the
other end as total garbage.

To work around this problem, NetFinder can be configured to transfer files in a less intelligent
way, namely the "traditional way". The result of this change will cause text files to be uploaded
and downloaded properly with these problematic servers, however NetFinder will no longer be able
to translate files to the format the remote system likes automatically for non-problematic servers.
As a result, NetFinder assumes all servers will do all the translating.

To force NetFinder into this mode of operation, you need to use a resource editor like ResEdit
and simply add a resource of type 'UL-A' with any ID number to the NetFinder application.

(5) SSL (Secure Socket Layer) support for FTP
NetFinder now has support for SSL (Secure Socket Layer) based FTP servers.
Due to import/export laws etc, you will have to download the OpenSSLLib from
the NetFinder web site to enable the feature.
Once downloaded, simply place the file in the same location as the application or place
it in the Extensions folder in your system folder.
Although only a few FTP servers support this (AUTH command), security is becoming a more
and more important issue, so we decided to be one of the first FTP clients (if not the first)
to support such a feature.
Once the OpenSSLLib file is in place, NetFinder will automatically try to establish a secure
connection. Please note that once the secure connection is in place, file transfers will
be noticably slower because all data is encrypted.

(6) ICI Script Support
ICI Script (pronounced icky) is a C-ish like scripting language that allows you to
write scripts to extend the functionality of NetFinder to your liking.
NetFinder currently exports the FTP engine functionality, TCP socket like functionality
(which also supports the SSL stuff when available) and various other useful routines.
Currently there are modules in the Modules folder that export numerous MacOS toolbox routines.
These modules will be part of MacICI (or MICI for short) which I (Peter) am currently
working on and will eventually finish. There are some sample scripts I have provided to
illustrate how one can use the exported routines from NetFinder, some are text files,
others are text but don't have a TEXT type ID, so you will have to use a text editor
like BBEdit to view them. The purpose of using a non-TEXT type ID, is so that they can be
double-clicked to be executed.

This feature is only available for PPC Macintoshes.

Also see Advanced Feature - ICI Script section for more details.
Also see the documentation that is provided in the Modules folder in the Scripting Components Folder (or in your NetFinder folder).

Some sample scripts provided, include:

Sending FTP Commands to active FTP connections.

Importing URL's from any text file into a NetFinder Bookmark List.

Search documentation for a word.

Periodical Script allowing users to:

Send more frequent NOOP commands to FTP servers.

Send an alternate periodic command to a server, to keep it alive.

Grab files as soon as they become available on a server by polling it.

(7) Server List Parser Plugins
Server plugins allow you to create a custom plugin for an FTP server that may be very basic in functionality
yet complex enough that no FTP client can parse the listing.

Examples of this can range from custom written FTP servers running on computers to FTP servers
written for PLC cards.

A sample plugin is provided. If you can make sence of it then you can start writing a plugin
yourself, otherwise mail us and we will help you get your plugin working.

Server plugins are located inside the "Servers" folder inside the "Modules" folder inside the "NetFinder" folder.
Plugins that fail to load, will be renamed with a leading '?', and the cause of the error will be appended to the end of the plugin contents.

(8) Disable Navigation Manager
To disable Navigation Manager being used in NetFinder, either add a resource 'noNa' of any ID to the NetFinder application, or create a file/folder with the name "noNav" in the same location as the NetFinder application.

(9) Customize Command Key Shortcuts
To change the command key shortcuts for menu commands in NetFinder you can use the ICI script command NFSetModifiersForCommand() or if you
simply wish to change the command key shortcut for a script or a shortcut / favorite menu item, you can use the following technique:

To define custom command key shortcuts for Scripts and Shortcuts items you
simply renaming the items on disk. Only available for MacOS 8.0 or higher.
eg if "My HTML Pages URL\aocsP" is the filename of a Shortcut on disk.
Then the menu item will be shown as "My HTML Pages URL" with the command
key being APPLE + OPTION + CONTROL + SHIFT and the letter "P"
where \ = command/modifier key sequence begin tag
a = Apple Key Modifier
o = Option Key Modifier
c = Control Key Modifier
s = Shift Key Modifier
P = command key to use, in this case the letter 'P'.
NOTE: the order of modifiers is important.

(10) Disabling Internet Config file mappings loading
Sometimes a conflict in Internet Config (Internet Control Panel) results in an OS call to never return.
As a result NetFinder appears to hang at startup. To disable this call to the OS, simply create
a file/folder named "noIC" in the NetFinder application folder, then restart NetFinder.

(11) Disabling Keychain Manager support in NetFinder
A report on MacFixIt stated that a rare Keychain Manager bug in OSX 10.0.3 could cause any FTP application
(including NetFinder) to crash when the Keychain Manager was used.
To disable NetFinder from making such calls to the OS, simply create
a file/folder named "noKC" in the NetFinder application folder, then restart NetFinder.

(12) Simple NetFinder Menus
Sometimes the use of all the advanced features of NetFinder are not required and sometimes can confuse
first time users. There is a hidden feature to allow NetFinder to show a simpler set of menus.
To enable "simple menus" in NetFinder, simply create a file/folder named "simple menus" in the NetFinder
application folder, then restart NetFinder.

(13) Disable Icon Services Manager for icon drawing
Sometimes 32-bit icons are nice, however they consume more memory. To disable using 32-bit icons,
simply create a file/folder named "noIS" in the NetFinder application folder, then restart NetFinder.
This was originally added to try to work around odd behavior in OSX when browsing SMB mounted servers.

(14) Disable Appearance Manager savvy twist down triangles
Under OSX (not OS9/8), the Appearance Manager draws the twist down triangles in a way that reduces the
efficiency of NetFinder when scrolling. They seem to "animate" while the user scrolls. This annoying feature
of the OS can get to some peoples nerves. In order to work around it, you can restore the previous (non-Appearance Manager)
twist down triangles by simply creating a file/folder named "oldTriangles" in the NetFinder application folder, then restart NetFinder.

Every thing you can do in FTP and possibly more. The following should be noted:

File copies are passed to the Finder to perform, so no progress window is seen in NetFinder.

During file copies and moves, because the Finder is performing these tasks. NetFinder may not be able to update the listing display in sync with the Finder. So it is best if you manually refresh the listing to see the state of the files in a listing window.

Further documentation regarding specific routines implemented by NetFinder that can be accessed
via ICI script can be found in the following files located in the "Module Doco" folder located
inside the "Modules" folder inside your NetFinder Folder.
eg "Macintosh HD:NetFinder v2.3:Modules:Module Doco:"